Great Peng Spreads Wing

Of course, it's not that simple, stepping forward together with sword. As with all of the taijiquan form I practice, it makes me question everything, like what stepping is, and where forward is, and why does the name include "together with sword?" We are holding the sword; how could we step forward without it? Ah, but we can. More on that later. I remember when I first learned Repulse Monkey, my teachers described the backward stepping as stepping forward to the rear. It took several years for me to understand this and actually it was only recently at a retreat in Costa Rica led by my teachers that my understanding really blossomed. In the first week, we spent some time each day discussing the taijiquan classics, guided by one of Lee's invaluable documents. In the Taijiquan Classic attributed to Zhang Sanfeng, there is this: Upward, downward, forward, backward, left, and right are all the same. In each case, the distinction is in the yi and not in the external. Lee t